Our Environmental Committee

At Harding we are passionate about making a difference. Every day we try and make a difference to our clients' lives through financial planning but we also pride ourselves in trying to make a difference to our planet.

We have developed the Harding Financial Environmental Committee, who meet regularly to look at ways of reducing our carbon footprint and to improve our impact on the environment.

We are keen to share with you some of the areas our Environmental Committee have been working on.

Our Business Processes

As a business we are passionate about technology and always look at ways we can use it to enhance our service to clients. Our Environmental Committee has focused heavily on increasing the capabilities of our clients’ Personal Finance Portal and it is now possible to access and sign documents electronically. This reduced the amount we print substantially, with an approximately 55% drop within a 9 month period when we first started the project in early 2020. We have pledged that all the savings we make from reducing our printing levels will be donated to our company supported charity, which for 2022 is the Alzheimer’s Society.

By engaging with your Personal Finance Portal you are not only helping the rainforests, but adding to the charity contribution being made by Harding Financial.

"We have reduced our printing costs by 55% in less than 9 months and we have given the savings to charity"

Our Investment Process

We now have over £140m of funds under advice. As a business we feel a great sense of responsibility not just to get the best possible return on our client’s money, but to ensure that this money can also be used to make a difference.

Since Harding began, we have asked clients whether they have a strong preference to Responsible/Sustainable investments. When a client has answered ‘yes’ to this question we have historically built a bespoke portfolio for them, meeting their preferences.

Over the last couple of years, we have seen a surge in the number of clients requesting to invest on an Responsible/Sustainable basis.

Therefore, as a business in March 2021 we created dedicated responsible/sustainable investment portfolios to run alongside our mainstream investment portfolios. The portfolios are constructed using the same process we use for our mainstream portfolios, whilst filtering sustainable and responsible funds.

"We now have over £23m invested in responsible and sustainable funds"

These funds invest in a wide range of sustainable and responsible companies such as:

• Companies developing treatments for diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
• Companies providing dialysis machines to help people with kidney failure and researching the infusion process.
• Companies that are developing semiconductors to improve safety in our cars.
• Companies using LED technology in headlights to help improve road safety.

"Over 50% of road accidents happen at night and using LED's in car headlights can help increase driver visibility at night"

Harding Financial are also members of the Ethical Investment Association (EIA).

By investing with Harding Financial you are helping us to make a difference to our world.